Christmas and Week 32 and 5 days...

We had a very low key Christmas here at the Deaton Ranch. Memaw and Pa came in on Dec 15th, and left on the 28th. They were VERY helpful in getting the last minute 'stuff' completed before the twins arrive.

Being that my brain does not work all the time right now, I had started a list of things I needed to have done when they were here, and it was about 3/4 of a page when they arrived. After they got here and we started marking off things as they were accomplished, other items came to mind and I added them to the list. This increased it to 1 1/2 pages. They were like "I think we are moving backwards, not forwards....stop adding to the list!" HA! :o)

So I stopped.....and we got basically all of it done!!! VERY helpful.

So Christmas Eve marked us making it to 32 Weeks!!!! YAY! We are so happy to have made this very critical date in our pregnancy. I am as big as a house. To prove this point, Memaw took profile pictures of me at every possible opportunity!

Santa came, and brought E lots of dolls with doll accessories like a crib, stroller, swing, clothes, etc. He also brought her a Sandbox complete with an umbrella for outside. She was very excited. I would have to say the "top" gifts for her were the Superman Comforter for her bed (she -LOVES- superman, cuz Papa has superman stuff too); the Dora the Explorer Princess Dress (which she -immediately- put on and wore the rest of the day); the play tool set she got from her best buddy Elliott; a battery operated fish that swims in the hot tub/bath tub from Chuck; and all the doll stuff. There is something to be said about your daughter wearing a pink princess dress, sitting on a superman comforter, hammering :o)

We did manage to get some cool pictures from that morning. Memaw and Pa enjoyed some really nice gifts as well, sent in from all over. All of us kids went in together and got him a really nice dehydrator (per his request). Memaw received some really nice knives and pots; and they both received a really cool Family Tree framed, from Uncle Tim and Aunt Courtney.

The hubby received a really cool black fedora which he put on and wore most of the day. We bought each other a new digital camera for the family.

Pa made a nice pork roast for Christmas lunch, and I had two helping of EVERYTHING, including dessert!!! I scared everyone with the sheer quantity of food I was able to put away that day....mostly myself! :o)

We also enjoyed a visit from the LeGarde's during Christmas week. It was a very nice visit. And talk about it being a small world...within 15 minutes of my folks talking with Aunt Lisa, they discovered that one of Aunt Lisa's roommates in College was the daughter of a family friend of my folks when we lived in Greenville, MS!! We ate good food and had a fun evening laughing and visiting.

Today was another visit with Dr. G. Everything checked out okay; we are still doing well, and Dr. G. would like to see us hit 34 weeks.....she actually said she would like to see us hit 36 weeks, which means 4 more weeks! Ugh! I don't know if I will be able to hit that mark, but I will do my best. As of today I'm measuring 40 weeks (and we are only 32 weeks and 5 days). Baby Girl A is -still- breech and is measuring 5.1 pounds, while Baby Boy B is measuring 4.6 pounds (+/- .5 pounds).

So for some background info, E was born at 41 weeks and weighed 8.1 pounds.....I already have more "baby" inside me than E at term! ACK!!!

So we will be continuing to see Dr. G. every Monday morning for sonograms and checks, and we will keep all of you in the loop as best we can.

Here is hoping everyone has a safe and happy New Year!!

Love to all,
Cherise

Week 30 and 6 days...

Monday morning, E was standing on the stool at my sink brushing her teeth with the hubby. I was in the bathroom with them changing out of my pj's into my clothes for the day. E turned around to me and this was the exchange:

E: Oh Momma! Your belly is SO beautiful!
ME: Oh Thank You Sweetie! Did you hear that dear? E says my belly is beautiful.
HUBBY: {smiling} Well of course it is!
E: Papa! Look! Momma's belly is Great!
HUBBY: {smirking} Great BIG!!!

So much for my 'special moment' with E... HA!!

So Wednesday is 31 weeks......and we are extremely pleased!

We also saw our OB doctor Monday; she walked in the room and told us that we were 'her good news of the day.' She was very happy to see us still doing well, and having reached 30 weeks. She told us she -really- wanted to see us go another month (get to 34 weeks). Actually, we would not mind that either....the longer they stay in, the better off they will be when they arrive, which means a shorter stay in the hospital for them.

We took measurements and the sonogram indicates that Baby Girl A is measuring 3.7 pounds and Baby Boy B is measuring 3.3 pounds (+/- .5 pounds). I am measuring 36 weeks in gestational size, have gained 31 1/2 pounds and measure 44 inches in circumference; which means I have expanded by 4 inches in 4 weeks! YIKES! When the doctor came up with the 36 week number, she speculated that I might be growing out on the sides instead of just out the front.....now that is depressing....I am going to look like I swallowed large inflatable doughnut before this is all said and done. :-\

The babies have not really moved from their previous positions. Baby Girl A is still on the left side, facing 'out', in the breech position (head up, feet down). Baby Boy B is still on the right side, but is now more on his right side...last week he was facing 'in', more on his stomach....he is still kinda in an "L" shape with his head down and his feet curving over to line up beautifully with his sister's head! :o)

The babies enjoy several rounds of WWF a day....and they can go into the night and wee hours of the morning. It just takes one of them to start moving around to cause the other one to 'respond' with jabs and kicks.

The doctor is very pleased with their movement and amniotic fluid levels. Their heart rates and other internal organs are still looking great. The placenta previa is still in tact, with no indication of bleeding or rupture - SUPER DUPER YAY!!!!

She also told us that she will be 'on call' next week, and that we will be seeing her associate, Dr. W., on Monday. We asked what would happen if we rupture while she is on call....will Dr. W. call her to come in and deliver the twins? Or will Dr. W. deliver the twins? She kinda laughed and said "well, you just never know when a call will come in when you are on call. I might be in the bath tub, or just stepped out for a basketball game, or maybe I just poured a second glass of champagne for myself." She basically went on to tell us that ultimately, her idea is that both her and Dr. W. will be there to deliver the twins, a sort of 'tag-team' event if you will. She said she will bring me a glass of champagne when this is all over.....I asked her to bring the bottle :o) She laughed again, but said sure!

We also discussed the possibility that I may have started dilating. I keep getting the sensation of what I call "a foot falling out" when I stand up. She said, 'well, it could very well be a foot falling down, but because the placenta is blocking the cervix, it is staying in.' Now, if that train of thought does not freak you out just a bit, you need to go back and re-read this paragraph :o\

Bearing that in mind, we are keeping our eye on the week by week progress. We learned that we were a few day off in our counting, and that the weeks start on Wednesdays instead of Saturdays. This means tomorrow marks Week 31 and Christmas Eve marks Week 32. So we are a few days farther along than we had originally estimated. I will take every day that I can get! :o)

Last week we had a Momma Jo visit. E was very happy to see her. Momma Jo brought with her the first Christmas Presents to go under the tree. So now we have started trying to teach E 'Christmas Present Etiquette.' In the previous two Christmas' the presents did not appear until the day before Christmas, and then they were not really noticed. But she definitely noticed the boxes under the tree this time. She wanted to open them immediately. She does not do good with grasping time yet, so to tell her she had to wait 2 weeks to open them just went over her head. We also had to explain that she could not throw them or jump on them either :oP

On Wednesday afternoon, the hubby took the afternoon off and he, Momma Jo and E went to the Dallas Aquarium (way too much walking for me to go). They really enjoyed themselves. I got a full report from E of all the animals she was able to see when they got home. Momma Jo was a little disappointed that E did not want to take her hood off for the majority of the Aquarium visit....interferes with the picture taking :o) I'm attaching some of the photos she managed to snap.

Memaw & Paw arrived yesterday early afternoon. They left AR just in time to avoid all the REALLY bad weather that hit. They will be here with us for the next two weeks, helping us with the last minute arranging and organizing for the twins. I am VERY grateful. I am sure for the next post we will have some Christmas activity pictures to share with all of you.

I guess that is all for now.

Love to all,
Cherise

Thanksgiving and 28 Weeks, 2 days...

Thanksgiving here on the Deaton Ranch was very quiet. Instead of doing a huge spread with lots of folks over, it was just the 3 of us (well, FIVE, counting the twins). We had a ham instead of a turkey (due to the size of the turkeys and our small group - just could not see us eating all that bird!).

Trying to engage E in the thoughts behind Thanksgiving, the hubby and I were going over the day's menu, among other things. One of our side dishes was to be a Spinach Salad. When I asked her if she wanted to help make the salad, she excitedly said "YES!" and then ran into the kitchen...now mind you, it was 8:30 in the morning...a little early for Thanksgiving Lunch :o)

But she was excited, and we wanted to encourage it. So the hubby set her up at the kitchen island with a bag of baby spinach leaves and a big bowl. She insisted on a spoon, so the hubby got her a serving spoon. "That's too big papa." So eventually she declared that a soup spoon was the right size. She then determinedly moved the spinach one leaf at a time from the bag to the bowl. He walked out to check on some other things, and reported to me that after about 20 minutes, she had managed to move about 1 cup of the spinach from bag to bowl (HA!) ...So he walked back up to her and this was the exchange:

"E, are you making progress?"
"No papa. I'm making salad."

When all the parades started to play on TV, she sat just mesmerized. She loved all of the floats and dancing and singing....she even clapped and joined in dancing when she deemed the TV performance worthy of her participation.

Later on we explained to her that Thanksgiving was all about being thankful for things we have, people we like, etc. She understood it best when we told her it was about naming the things that make us happy. Not too bad of a grasp for an almost-three-year-old.

Pregnancy is really wreaking havoc on my brain. For example, last night the hubby had spent a good bit of the early evening prepping and then starting a pot of beans (with the Thanksgiving ham bone) and a batch of cornbread muffins (which E assisted in preparing). Then when we were about 30 minutes from being ready, we had friends call and ask him to come over and watch their kids, due to them needing to take their dog to the emergency vet. So E and the hubby headed over, leaving me to "tend" to the muffins and beans. Seems pretty straight-forward: buzzer goes off, take out muffins, turn off oven, turn off burner under beans and cover.

Buzzer goes off.
Muffins come out.
Oven gets turned off.
Brain checks out.
Beans end up boiling out all of the water and scorching to the bottom of the pot.
Damn it!

Does it count as dinner if all you have are cornbread muffins???? Yeah, I didn't think so.

So Saturday was our Second Most Important Goal Date of 28 Weeks!!!! Everyone (but me) do some kind of break out dance of joy!!!!! So as of this posting we are at 28 weeks, plus 2 days!

My sciatic pain is still with me, but I have also developed pretty severe side and now back pain to go along with it. Our OB had suggested that I start taking hot baths in the evenings to help easy those tired muscle, which I was doing, and it was helping.....until E wanted to join me. Not so much on the relaxing as much as it was on the 'catch the slippery kid before she falls on me' end of the spectrum. But the hubby came to the rescue! He fixed our hot tub!!!! Now the funny thing is that sometimes my back/sides start to give out really early on in the day....like before noon. So he just turns the tub on and says "Go Float." You just gotta love a man like that! I have a maternity swimsuit, somewhere.....but that brain thing I was telling you about earlier, yeah that one... well I just can't seem to remember where I put it. So I just put on a bikini top with swim shorts and go for it. It is Quite A Sight, I must tell you...words fail to describe it accurately, although 'scary' is definitely included! HA! :o) And yes.....the purple rose has blossomed into a full blown purple cabbage! :oP

We met with our Doctor today and had another sonogram. Baby Girl A is in a breech position on the left side, while Baby Boy B is in a 'transverse' position where his head is kinda down and on the right, but his body then goes up and wraps around, and it ends with his feet near Baby Girl A's head. Very weird!

They are really starting to move and push off each other and everything inside me. There are several times a day where all of a sudden, I can't breath because one of them is pressing into my lungs. Or even better, trying to rearrange the location of my ribs....very uncomfortable, needless to say.

Today's measurements: I have gained 30 pounds to date. Baby Girl A is measuring 3 pounds. Baby Boy B is measuring 2.7 pounds. I am measuring 35-36 weeks along. For those of you keeping up with all of these lovely measurements from visit to visit, what this means is Thanksgiving Was Good!!!! Don't you just LOVE pie?!?!

We asked Doctor G what are we to expect going forward. She wants to see us every Monday, and will probably do sonograms every visit. At our current rate of measurement increases, we will probably measure like we are 40 weeks along in just 2 more weeks (which will only be 30 weeks in actuality). She told us some key warning signs to look out for, and if they should happen, to call the office immediately. She also said if they happen, she will most likely put me in the hospital. She would really like to see us get to at least 32 weeks, which is the Saturday after Christmas. I told her I'm aiming for one Saturday after the next! Just taking it one week at a time :o)

Side Note: The hubby's cousin, Isabel sent out a link to snapfish, and an album of their twins. Their two darlings are home and doing well! Yay! I'm including the link:

Click Here

You just need to sign up for a snapfish account, if you don't already have one, to view the pictures.

Love to all,
Cherise